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Angela Bergschmidt presents Oral paper 34
In session 7: Stakeholders' views on animal welfare
Saturday, 13 September 2008 from 9h45-10h00 in the Aula chaired by Hans Hopster
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Oral paper 34
APPLICATION OF AN ANIMAL WELFARE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM FOR
POLICY EVALUATION: DOES THE FARM INVESTMENT SCHEME
IMPROVE ANIMAL WELFARE IN SUBSIDISED NEW STABLES?
A. Bergschmidt 1 , L. Schrader 2
1 Institute of Farm Economics, Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural
Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, Braunschweig, Germany
2 Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Celle, Germany
The National Assessment Catalogue for Animal Husbandry (NACAH) is an approach for a
combined assessment of the effects of housing systems on the environment and on animal welfare.
Indicators are used to evaluate the effects on animal behaviour. They are classified related to the
restriction of normal behaviour in each of the selected housing systems and then aggregated into
three categories (A to C). The aggregation follows criteria adapted for the purposes of this study.
In Germany, many stables are constructed with subsidies from the Farm Investment Scheme (FIS),
a measure of the EU Rural Development Programme. The FIS contains numerous goals including
the improvement of animal welfare.
We applied the NACAH to evaluate the effect of the FIS on animal welfare. Information on animal
housing conditions before and after the investment was gathered in a telephone survey carried out in
2007. The farms were selected in a random disproportional sample, stratified according to the
federal states. The sample sizes amount to 18% of the population of assisted dairy farms (n=320)
and 32% of assisted fattening pig farms (n=210).
The application of the NACAH revealed important differences in the behavioural aspect of animal
welfare between dairy and pig farms. Before the investment, dairy housings received a much better
rating than those for fattening pigs. In the new stables, the aspect behaviour:
• did not change for 24% of the dairy and 44% of the pig farms,
• deteriorated in 7% of the dairy and 38% of the pig farms,
• improved in 69% of the dairy and 18% of the pig farms.
As ameliorations in the dairy farms are mainly attributed to the abandonment of tethered-stalls, the
FIS does not achieve distinct improvements of animal welfare at the farm level.
Contact information: Angela Bergschmidt or email angela.bergschmidt@vti.bund.de
Complete address: Institute of Farm Economics Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute (vTI) Federal
Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries Bundesallee 50 38116
Braunschweig Germany
Species: Dairy cattle